Monday, 2 December 2013

My Book is Getting Published

For the last decade I have been working towards getting a
book published. It has pretty much been my only goal in life. And now it’s
happening! My first novel will be published in 2015 by Constable &
Robinson, who are lovely and bought world English rights.

This is probably the first time in my life that hard work
has paid off. Apart from that time I took a 2 hour round walk to purchase
discounted ice cream. That paid off handsomely.

Real handsomely

The book is entitled The
Marxist Fingernails of King Richard III, and tells the story of a lonely
royal fingernail swayed by the coquettish allures of the capitalist model, and
his rebellion against his Marxist nail-mates to achieve the American Dream.
Along the way he must battle a nasty case of fungus, avoid his head being
clipped off, and endure the embarrassment of having faeces embedded underneath
himself.

Okay, so I just made that up as I was typing. It actually
sounds better than the real book. You can read about that in the press release via The Bookseller.

Official cover artwork

When I started university I set myself the target of being
published by the time I was 30. Although in recent years I’ve known that I was
good enough to achieve that, I always thought that another obstacle would
scupper my chances, as it does for so many: a book idea that isn’t easily
marketable; that doesn’t happen to resonate on a personal level with an editor;
my lack of sheer dumb luck; my questionable personal hygiene. So I really
couldn’t be happier that I will achieve that goal.

In 50 years, when I am living in a hover house full of
snakes, I will be able to shout to the hover children outside the hover window
that I will be leaving my mark on the world in the form of some book about
fingernails I had published once. And the children will say: “What the fuck is
a book? Does it hover?”